TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, as investors took heart from rallies on Wall Street and a relatively cheap yen against the dollar.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.06% or 222.64 points at 21,256.40 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.86% or 13.52 points at 1,596.37.
“The rallies in US shares and a relatively cheaper yen is helping the Tokyo market gain,“ Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.
The dollar fetched 110.62 yen in early Asian trade, unchanged from the level in New York but up from 110.13 yen in Tokyo late Thursday.
Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday following a recovery in 10-year US Treasury yields, after weakness in bond rates in recent sessions raised worries about slowing economic growth.
Japan’s closely watched factory output rose modestly in February with unemployment staying at record low levels, official data showed Friday before the opening bell, underscoring the patchy recovery of the world’s third largest economy.
SoftBank Group was up 1.99% at 10,755 yen, Toyota was up 0.34% at 6,536 yen, and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron was up 1.09% at 16,200 yen.
Pharmaceuticals firm Daiichi Sankyo surged 16 percent to the day’s limit of 5,100 yen at one point, after it announced a tie-up with AstraZeneca for development of a cancer drug. The deal could be worth as much as US$6.9 billion (RM28.1 billion), a statement from Daiichi Sankyo said.
On Wall Street, the Dow gained 0.4% to close the session at 25,717.46. — AFP
